Notable Quotables - 11/17/1997

Published: 11/17/1997 2:00 AM ET

How Dare You

"You were raised, sir,
in a subsidized housing project by a single mother and yet you support welfare
reform and oppose affirmative action. How do you square those two sides?"- NBC's Ann Curry to Paul
Harris, the first black Republican elected to the Virginia House of Delegates
since 1891, on the November 5 Today.

Voters Angry or for
Status Quo?

"New Jersey really
provided the only squeaker election. Republican Governor Christine Whitman's
narrow victory reflected what may be voter unhappiness about some local tax
issues. In Virginia, Republican James Gilmore also won with a hotly divisive
tax proposal to scrap local taxes on cars....Well, the President's coattails
aren't very long but in off year elections they aren't necessarily always, but
it does come at a time when the President's own personal popularity has
remained at a fairly high level. It also comes at a time when the Democrats
suggest that the Clinton economy is just so good that the incumbents won and
people voted for the status quo."- ABC's Ann Compton, November 5 Good Morning America.

Redneck Conservatives
for Discrimination

"About the big setback
for affirmative action. The high court today upheld California's ban on
programs designed to fight discrimination against women and minorities on the
job and in school admissions..."- Dan Rather on the Supreme Court refusing to review a lower court decision
upholding California's Proposition 209, November 3 CBS Evening News.

"But opponents of the
policy, spurred by the success of the anti-affirmative action campaign in
California said the policy was biased and the time to end it had come. They
sponsored Proposition A and tried to make it sound as if it were a way to end
discrimination without ever mentioning the words affirmative action. But
Houston Mayor Bob Lanier got the city council to re-phrase the language in the
proposition making it clear that a yes vote would end the city's affirmative
action program....Mayor Lanier said the choice for Houston was clear: people
here had to decide whether they wanted to be viewed as a cosmopolitan,
diverse, international city or, as he put it, 'Redneckville.' Dean Reynolds,
ABC News, Houston."- November 5
World News Tonight story on Houston's vote to keep its contract set-aside
program.

Put Aside What's
Illegal...

"It didn't help that
while Republicans railed about misdeeds of the Clinton Administration, their
leaders opposed outlawing the huge contributions that helped create the
scandal. And few believe these hearings will really fix anything."- Lisa Myers in a NBC Nightly News story on the end of the Senate fundraising
hearings, October 31.

"Your hearings clearly
reinforced the public's already low opinion of politicians and politics.
Beyond that, what did it accomplish?....At the same time you were criticizing
the misdeeds of the Clinton administration, leaders of your own party were
opposing changes in the law to outlaw these huge contributions that helped
create this scandal. Do you think that undercut your credibility with the
public?"- Questions from NBC's
Lisa Myers to Senator Fred Thompson, November 7 Today.

"So far, more than 100
hours of tape of the Panhandler in Chief have been made public. Put aside for
a moment the questions about what was illegal and what was just unseemly, and
the overall effect is oddly comforting. If nothing else, the tapes prove that
the most powerful nation on earth can operate on autopilot while its President
chases campaign money."- Time
Senior Writer Richard Lacayo, October 27.

Brokaw's Differing
Spins on Hearings A Decade Apart

"In Washington tonight,
one of the most dramatic stories to come out of the campaign finance
investigations, which seem to be a swamp without end for both parties."- Tom Brokaw introducing a story on Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's
testimony, October 30 NBC Nightly News.

vs.

"And when the public
phase of those hearings ended today with the testimony of Secretary Weinberger,
we were left with an astonishing record of deceit, ignorance, naivet, good
or bad intentions, failed policies, and discredited public servants, and this
story is not yet complete."- Tom
Brokaw on the Iran-Contra hearings, August 3, 1987 NBC Nightly News.

Carjacking? You Asked
For It

"Aaron Bottoms says he
wasn't out to test a law and hopes his attacker survives....Still, driving a
car with wheels valued at $700 dollars each these days may be a case of
inviting trouble instead of avoiding it."- CBS
Evening News reporter Bob McNamara on Louisiana's first case of allowing a
carjacking victim to legally shoot to protect himself, November 5.

Ted Calls for Green
Activist Media

"American media need to
take a more active role in saving the planet. Reporters, editors and
executives must lead the charge on protecting the environment and rally
different cultures together to improve the lot of the have-nots, [CNN chief
Ted] Turner said....Population growth harms air quality and depletes the
world's food supply, he said. Turner said the United States and other
countries should convene a global conference and look hard at family planning,
perhaps adopting China's policy of one child per family. 'Voluntary, of
course,' he said. 'I had five kids,' Turner added in one of the many asides
Friday that typify his speeches, 'but I had them 30 years ago I didn't
know.'"- Arizona Republic reporter
Abraham Kwok on Turner's speech in Scottsdale to the American Magazine
Association, October 25.

From the Far Right to
Hollywood

"While the Chinese
leader was getting the full measure of a White House welcome the cannons, the
fifes and drums demonstrators were unfurling a full menu of protests. China's
behavior on Taiwan, its record on human rights, its suppression of
independence in Tibet. That rally briefly allied speakers from the far
right....with Hollywood activism."- ABC White House reporter John Donvan matching the Family Research Council's
Gary Bauer with actor Richard Gere, October 29 World News Tonight.

Anita Hill: Joan of
Arc

"[I]n person, Hill
bears only passing resemblance to her rather stern image from newspapers and
television. At 41, she is slender to the point of willowy. Her features are
elegant, and while she is intense while discussing her political
baptism-by-fire, she can also muster a warm smile and a hearty laugh qualities
that had little occasion to surface in the nine hours that changed Hill's
world. So, she was asked, does she sometimes feel like the Joan of Arc of
sexual harassment? Sure, Hill replied, and here came the mirth the Senate
never saw: 'I refuse to die, though.'"- Los Angeles Times reporter Elizabeth Mehren, October 1.

We'll Wave As You
Pack for Iraq

"Open societies, it
turns out, haven't been as generous as socialism and communism to women who
want to serve in public office. From Albania to Yemen, the number of women in
power plummeted after the transition from socialist governments, which sought
to develop female as well as male proletariats. As those governments died, so
went the socialist ideals of equality and the subsidies for social programs
that aided women. In many countries, traditional patriarchal cultures
resurfaced."- Los Angeles Times
correspondent Robin Wright, October 2 Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed.

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